Wynfrid House

1968-70, German hostel

This guest house was built in 1968-70 to the east of and as an adjunct to the
German Roman Catholic Church of St Boniface. It was conceived by Father Felix
Leushacke as a hostel open to short-term residence by any and all, but
particularly young visitors and tourists from Germany sympathetic to the
Catholic mission. He acknowledged that there was not at the time anything like
a ‘deutsche Kolonie’ in London. It was financed by the German Bishops’
Conference and the West German Foreign Office in Bonn through its London
embassy. Plaskett Marshall & Partners were responsible for design, Ashby
& Horner Ltd were the builders. First thoughts in 1956 envisaged
accommodation for 400 above common spaces. To provide an open courtyard next
to the church and away from the street an L plan was adopted. This was seen as
suited to girls’ and boys’ wings. Deferred until the church was finished, the
project was revived in 1964, but it had to pass muster in two countries and
there were more revisions. Gender separation was abandoned after an attempt to
impose separate staircases and lifts, what had been projected as a licensed
club room became simply a hall, and capacity was reduced to 100. Plans were
settled in 1967 and seen through under Leushacke, who remained in charge up to
1986. Originally four storeys and a basement, the building’s concrete floors
are starkly expressed between brick-panel facing and small windows to the
outer elevations, the inner or courtyard sides have far more fenestration. An
abstract patterned stained-glass window in the front elevation lights a
staircase. The front range was raised a storey around 1998.1